Philanthropy

Last year several of the MOPS mom’s attended MQP’s inaugural Winemaker’s Dinner & Auction. It was an evening filled with wine tasting, silent auction bidding (think vacation rentals, art work, meals, etc.) and a live auction over a catered dinner. Plan to join fellow MOPS mom’s and other community members at the 2014 Wine Tasting Dinner & Auction.

Thanks to Anheuser-Busch Sales of Washington (and Maggie Braden’s Dad!), they have agreed to donate beer to help entice folks to our event that will be held on May 3rd in the Social Hall at MQP. Trivia night should be a fun evening…so get the word out & let Abbey & Sandy (click their names to email them) know if you are able to volunteer yourself in any capacity to make the night a success.

We had a successful drop-off of 250+ sandwiches downtown on Saturday morning, so thanks to those who came to help!

Our final outreach activity for the year will be getting together items for hygiene kits for Heroes for the Homeless. The info on what they need is below, but I would ask people to bring travel/hotel soaps and some of the other items listed during meetings in March and April. Or they can drop off at my Mary Fossa’s home anytime.

Ladies, don’t forget to respond on the EVITE for this month’s outreach!

We need to put together at least 250 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in order for me to deliver them to Seattle bright and early (6:30 a.m.!!) Saturday morning. These sandwiches will be handed out to high-risk homeless in the downtown Seattle area who do not have the benefit of shelters. More info on the organization can be found HERE.

We’ll assembly-line this project to get it done as quickly as possible. Older kids who’d like to help are welcome. Feel free to bring drinks and/or snacks (just note what you can bring in the comments).

Outreach will take care of the supplies for the sandwiches. Here’s what it should take to get the job done:

Before deploying Soldiers leaves, the first thing on our mind is not the possible dangers we may face, but the family we are leaving behind. Being in a community completely away from a military support system definitely worried me, but I would have to say, the support this group has provided our family has been above and beyond. First of all, thank you so much for that.

That support continued with the generous care packages,which all came at different times (gotta love the Army mail system), received over the past several days. I passed the contents of the package out to all of the folks I work with and they were very appreciative! Many believe that I now receive the best packages and the goodies made some gather around as I opened each one. Every single piece of the packages is being put to good use by the Soldiers, Airmen and civilians here on our compound.

Thank you so much for the wonderful showing of support for our Warfighters here in Afghanistan. It is through your thoughts, prayers and actions that we continue to proudly serve this amazing country of ours. Know that the support provided by this wonderful group overwhelms us here and helps make our time away a little easier.

Again, thanks for the amazing support to our family. I am comforted knowing how quickly this group rallied around my girls back home. I look forward to being home with my family and the time when I can thank each person one by one.

Thanksgiving week has arrived! Here is some important information for you to know to help make the Issaquah Turkey Trot run smoothly and keep everyone safe.

Online Registration ends Tuesday at 11:00pm. There is still time to invite your friends and get yourself registered! (We still have t-shirts available. If you are able to choose your t-shirt from the drop down menu when you register, that means we still have t-shirts in that size available).

T-shirt Pick Up /In Person Registration On WEDNESDAY: We want to strongly encourage you to pick up your t-shirts on Wednesday from 12pm-8pm at the Sports Authority in Issaquah. Turkey Trotters get a 15% off your entire purchasecoupon – Sports Authority will be donating 10% of all turkey trotters in-store purchases to the food bank. Coupons will also be available at the store. We will only be accepting cash or check for those registering at Sports Authority or Thanksgiving morning.

Thanksgiving Morning:

PARKING: Please park in the Pickering Square (PCC, Michaels, Office Depot) parking lot or Costco Warehouse Parking. Enter on 11th Ave or 12th Ave to park. 10th Avenue (street between Costco and the Pickering Barn) will be CLOSED. DO NOT park or use the Holiday Inn’s parking lot.

START LINE: Located at the City of Issaquah NW Building located behind Lowe’s (1775 12th Ave NW, Issaquah, WA 98027).

There will be designated areas for the runners, joggers & walkers to wait until their race begins. Look for the designated signs where you should group together. Remember there are different start times for each group so the route isn’t crowded and will help keep everyone safe.

THANKSGIVING MORNING SCHEDULE7:30am – T-shirt Pickup & Day of Registration Open9:00am – Race begins for runners9:02am – Race begins for joggers9:05am – Race beings for walkersNote: The Start Line will remain open until 9:15am if you wish to avoid the crowd and start the route after the official start times.

There will be a large timer at the finish line so you can get an idea of what your time was. If you want a more official time, I would suggest you bring your own stopwatch.

DAY OF REGISTRATION: If you plan on registering the day of the event we only accept can accept cash or check only. We are quickly running out of extra t-shirts so if you know of anyone who wants a t-shirt, I would encourage them to register soon!

GOBBLE WOBBLE: Kids can pick up a Gobble Wobble punch card at Sports Authority or at the Information Booth before the race. We will have volunteers with balloons along the route that will hole punch their card. Tell your kiddos to look for the balloons! At the finish line there will be a prize bag for them {even if your child does not do the entire route we will have a prize bag for them just for coming}.

FOOD DONATIONS: The Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is always in need of food. If you would like to bring non-perishable donations we will be collecting them Thanksgiving morning and making a delivery to the Food Bank on Friday. Please bring your donations to the Information Booth. You can see specific items the Issaquah Food Bank needs by visiting their website: www.issaquahfoodbank.org

We have so much to be thankful for this upcoming holiday – and part of that is thanking YOU for supporting the Issaquah Turkey Trot – The Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is going to be so impressed with how our community came together once again for this event to help many families through the holiday season.

If you have any more questions, please visit our FAQ Page or feel free to email us.

A handful of MOPS moms took to Marionwood retirement home on Monday to spread a little Halloween joy to the residents there. Thanks to all the darling creatures, etc. that came dressed for the occasion! Here’s a little sample of what residents saw:

We have a tendency to throw a lot of information at you all at the beginning of a meeting…we don’t mean to overwhelm anyone! It can be hard to keep all the details, dates, etc. but they are all here for you on the website.😃

First, the calendar is up to date (including the Marionwood Outreach). There’s detailed info about the event & the address of the senior home on the calendar tab.

We’ll be adding the documents Sandy mentioned at this morning’s meeting to the member section soon. The online directory is already on there & is updated with each new change, so the most current version is always there. If you were present today you got the password for that page. If you were absent (or forgot it), please email your table leader for it & she can get it to you.

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Also, Abbey put up the sign up sheets today for the interest groups. If you are interested in joining an interest group and were absent or didn’t have a chance to sign up, please email Abbey at abbey.kraetsch@gmail.com with which group(s) you’d like to be a part of.